F/O Hale's Lancaster KB715 was hit by flak knocking out three of it's engines and starting fires aboard the aircraft. The aircraft was on a daylight raid on an airdrome at Lohausen near Dusseldorf. The effect of the blast sent the aircraft out of control, unable to drop the bomb load possibly from lack of hydraulics the pilot F/O Cowtan ordered the crew to bail out. F/O Hale was executed by members of the Gestapo after having landed. What little can be found out from War Crime records is that five soldires were sentenced to varying degrees of prison terms. The leader at the time of the trials had not been found. The crew had only seen six chutes open and had believed Hale was with the aircraft when it went down. All other members of the crew became POWs and only found out about the treacherous act of the Gestapo much later.
Link to KB715As Halifax LW327 was coming in directly on the target of Leipzig it was attacked by fighter aircraft. Damage to the controls and fires in the fuel tanks meant the need for bailing out. Navigator Davies bailed out of the crippled aircraft with other members of the crew. The two gunners had been lost during the attack. In reports later collected, F/S Hairsine had said that Davies was the second out of the aircraft. And although not fully collaborated there was suspicion that me may not have been killed by his parachute wrapping around him but by some of the towns people where he had landed.
